Ayush Doctor

Ayush practitioners denied salaries

• April 10, 2011
• DC
• WARANGAL

April 9: About 500 Ayurveda, Unani, Sidda, Homoe-opathy and Naturopathy (Ayush) contract medical staff appointed under National Rural Health Mission project (NRHM) in Warangal Zone are without salaries for over a year. Recruited in two phases in 2008 and 2009, Ayush association leaders said that due to inaction by the state de-partment of Ayush, families of medical officers, compounders and sweepers cum nursing orderlies (SNOs) are facing financial crisis.

Under Warangal zone, that includes Karimnagar, Adilabad, Khammam and Warangal, there are 22 Ayurvedic, 16 Homeopathy, 10 Unani and two Naturopathy three-member Ayush teams in each district. They do not have separate clinics but have been allotted space in select primary health centres (PHCs) and community health centres (CHCs) in mandal headquarters. Presently, as per the existing funding pattern, 85 per cent financial burden is borne by the Centre while the rest 15 per cent is borne by the state government.

Though funds from the department of Ayush, Government of India, is said to be prompt, sources said that the problem is mainly due to diversion of funds by the state government to other areas like 108 and 104 services. “Forget our salaries, we do not even have medicines for distribution to patients for the last 14 months,” complained Dr R. Jagdishwar Prasad, Warangal unit president of National Medical Association (Ayurvedic). Incidentally, international homeopathy day (one of the Ayush medical systems) is celebrated on April 10 to mark the birth anniversary of its German founder, Samuel Frederick Hahnemann. Dr P. Johnson, state president of Ayush (NRHM), also alleged that the state health department is intentionally giving less salary to contract Ayush medical officers of the state even though their counterparts are paid well in other states under the same project.

“Ayush project is funded under the NRHM by the Centre in 18 states, but our salaries are less when you compare our basic monthly salary of `9,300 to `15-24,000 received by our co-unterparts in other states,” he said, adding that this was done with a view to keep the state's 15 per cent contribution to a minimum. When contacted, Mr L. Lingamurthy, regional deputy director (RDD), department of Ayush, Warangal zone, said that the salary issue is “under the purview of commissioner, state department of Ayush.”

“All the Ayush contract staff is expected to get their salary within a week,” he said, adding that at a meeting in March, all six Ayush RDDs of the state recommended the state health department to increase salaries of Ayush medical officers on par with their other state counterparts. While terming the decision to pay less salaries to Ayush staff in the state as a ‘policy decision’, he said that contracts of the employees would be further extended for a year after their present one year term gets over in July.

Dr.M.Danish Mahfooz

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